‘You’ve either never heard of him… or you love him…’
John Cooper Clarke’s poetry is like one of those secret clubs exclusive and beloved to those in the club but virtually unheard of out of it. Clarke is hardly a household name but he’s a cult figure to those in the know and his influence on pop culture is boundless (as evidenced by the list of admirers conjured up in this documentary: Alex Turner, Craig Charles, Stewart Lee etc). Evidently… John Cooper Clarke (named after Evidently Chickentown – one of Clark’s most famous poems) is an attempt to understand Clarke’s success and contextualise it in the wider world of pop culture.
Originally aired on BBC Four in 2012 and directed by sometime Shane Meadows collaborator John Ross, Evidently…´ charts Clarke’s rise to infamy: from supporting Bernard Manning in the clubs of Manchester to becoming synonymous with the punk movement, through heroin addiction, dalliances with members of The Velvet Underground and an eventual resurgence partly due to the intervention of a certain rock ‘n’ roll band from Sheffield.
There is a comforting inevitability to the fact that Clarke himself is by far the most interesting talking head who takes part in this documentary. That’s not to say that we aren’t treated to several interesting observations from other sources but Clarke is such an unparalleled orator (I would highly recommend his episode of Desert Island Discs) that the ruminations on his career are always more compelling when presented from the horse’s mouth. It is also a pleasure to see archive footage of the man himself performing his utterly unique poems in front of a baying live audience before numerous punk rock shows in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
As an English teacher, it always bothers me that there aren’t more working-class voices on the curriculum. Indeed, one of the contributors to this documentary is a former exam board employee who speaks with warmth and affection about Clarke’s work. It’s a shame that he has slipped off the required reading list. His work will endure, however, and Evidently… John Cooper Clarke is as good a historical document of Clarke’s genius as anything else.
